Rishworth sale announcement

Through the AMP Pencarrow Fund (Fund III), Pencarrow Private Equity is pleased to have accepted an offer to acquire Rishworth Aviation by Empresaria Group plc, a LSE-listed international specialist staffing group. Rishworth will add to Empresaria’s existing staffing solutions to provide it with recruitment services in seven key sectors including Technical & Industrial, Aviation Services, IT & Design, Professional Services, Healthcare and Retail. Empresaria acquired 82.6% of Rishworth for a total cash consideration of US$10 million. The remaining 17.4% interest will be held by the senior management team in line with Empresaria’s model of management equity ownership.

Rishworth is a specialist recruitment group headquartered in Auckland, with a regional office in Stockholm, providing aviation pilots and aviation personnel to clients across the globe. It has a significant presence in Asia, Europe and Africa and leading clients include Norwegian, Korean Air and Vietnam Airlines.

Pencarrow led a succession management buy-out / buy-in of Rishworth in 2005 from the previous 100% owner, Peter Rishworth. Under the ownership of Pencarrow and management, Rishworth significantly grew its client base and number of leased pilots and air crew to become the world’s second largest pilot leasing business. Rishworth was the last remaining investment in Fund III so concludes that fund.